Islamic religious practice and it's influence on academic performance amongst students of Academy of Islamic Studies, University of Malaya, Malaysia / Mahmoud Said Mohdy Abdelal

The current doctorate study seeks to contribute to the concept of Islamic religiousness and its impact on academic achievement. The study sample consisted of 138 male and female students studying at the Academy of Islamic Studies at University of Malaya, Malaysia, during the academic year of 2014/2015. The researcher applied the inductive and descriptive-analytical approaches, using a survey (prepared by the researcher) as the study instrument. The data was statistically analyzed using SPSS v.22 and AMOS. The results revealed a high level of both Islamic religiousness and academic achievement incentive among the sample of the study. It also revealed the direct effect of Islamic religiousness on academic achievement incentive among the sample of the study, the presence of an overall effect (both direct and indirect) of the two aspects of knowledge and ritual worship as components of Islamic religiousness (as independent variables) upon the two aspects of ambition and performance as components of academic achievement (dependent variables) through the aspect of manners as a component of Islamic religiousness, with females in favor of males. On the other hand, no differences were found between the two genders in terms of Islamic religiousness with its two aspects of knowledge and ritual worship, and academic achievement incentive with its two aspects of ambition and performance.